TCW FINALS

Module 11-12

Thomas Robert Malthus

• was interested in everything about populations.

• He accumulated figures on births, deaths, age of marriage and child-bearing and economic factors contributing to longevity.

• His main contribution was to highlight the relationship between food supply and population.

Dermographics

the study of population based on factors such as age, race, and sex

Malthusian Population Theory

Malthus viewed poverty, hunger and lack of sufficient food production to feed all of the world's people as an inevitable part of the human experience. In accordance with the less secular standards of the science-minded during his lifetime, he believed this arrangement was put in place by God to keep people from being lazy.

An Essay On The Priciple of Population

his illustrative side-by-side comparison of arithmetic and a geometric series—food increases more slowly than population—that it was often taken out of context and highlighted as his main observation. The observation is, indeed, so stark that it is still easy to lose sight of Malthus’s actual conclusion: that because humans have not all starved, economic choices must be at work, and it is the job of an economist to study those choices.

geometrically (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32)

Thomas Malthus argued that because of the natural human urge to reproduce human population increases _

arithmetically (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

However, food supply, at most, can only increase _

1. marrying at a later age (moral restraint)

2. abstaining from procreation

3. birth control

4. homosexuality

preventative checks

1. disease

2. war

3. disaster

4. famine

positive checks

climate change, pollution

Many scientists believe that even if the food supply can be maintained at adequate levels per se, the environmental consequences will be such that sustainability measures will fail for secondary reasons (_)

technology, infrastructure, science, and medical care

Food surpluses gave homo sapiens time to develop the “stuff” of civilization:

dermographic transition

These advances brought lower death rates and accelerated population growth still further. This cycle, called “_” by professionals, has repeated itself over and over again through the millennia.

Me Too

What does seem in sync with the economy is the new assertiveness of women – exemplified by the “_” movement, a record number of women elected to political office or running large corporations, and millennials postponing marriage.

Third Wave

Feminist activists call it the “_” of their movement, comparing it to the 1920s and the 1970s, when fertility and economic growth also decoupled. This leads to an obvious, but largely unrecognized, conclusion that birth rates may depend on micro events like women’s attitudes toward marriage and procreation, as much as macro events like the economy.

Shiela Jeffries

Feminist scholar _ writes “… the traditional elements of marriage have not completely disappeared in western societies, even in the case of employed, highly educated and… well paid professional women.” These women “… feel they have no choice but to stay and endure and may ‘love to survive.’”

1920s

The economy was booming. World War I had given women access, at least temporarily, to factory jobs once deemed inappropriate for their gender. As the decade unfolded full time office jobs – typists, filing clerks, and stenographers – became possibilities for ambitious young women.

the birth control pill

In 1968 a writer called it the most important breakthrough since the discovery of fire. Twenty-five years later the Economist listed it among the seven wonders of the modern world.

Enovid

Many blame it for the sexual revolution that (allegedly) swept the country in the 1960s, and it’s not hard to see why. When first produced in 1957, pharmaceutical company G. D. Searle touted the drug, called _, as a treatment for “gynecological disorders.” Contraception was a little noticed side effect.

contraceptive revolution

The pill heralded what some demographers call a “_,” a period when women switched from less effective forms of contraception controlled entirely by men – mainly condoms and coitus interruptus.